Received an email: guaranteed number 1 in Google? Here's how to spot SEO spam
"We'll get you to number 1 in Google within a week, guaranteed." Almost every business owner with a website gets emails and phone calls like this. Sometimes they seem to come from your hosting company or from Google. In this article you'll read what Google itself says about such promises, which tricks can harm your site, and how to recognise a fair offer.
What Google itself says
Google has a page about hiring an SEO specialist. Among other things, it states:
- No one can guarantee a first page ranking in Google.
- Be careful with companies that email you unsolicited, and with companies that are secretive about exactly what they're going to do.
- You never have to put a link to an SEO agency on your site.
- "Submitting your site to thousands of search engines" and link popularity tricks are useless for your ranking in the major search engines.
- Advertising with Google has no effect on your ranking in the regular search results, and Google never accepts money to include or rank a site higher.
- Google doesn't review or approve SEO tools from others. So a tool that calls itself "approved by Google" isn't.
Recognise the spam email
Watch out for these signals:
- a guarantee of a ranking, or results within a few days;
- a package with a fixed number of "backlinks" or a price per link;
- a "secret method" that isn't explained.
Does the email appear to come from WebOké, or is it about your domain? Then first check whether it's genuine: read Is this email really from WebOké? Recognising phishing and using the promo code and Emails from ICANN or the registry about your domain: real or fake, and what to do. If in doubt, don't click any links in the email and contact us.
Tricks that can harm your site
Google describes in its spam policies tricks that try to mislead search engines. According to Google, sites that violate the policies can drop in ranking or disappear from the results entirely. These are exactly the tricks that are often offered:
| Trick | What it looks like |
|---|---|
| Bought links | A package of links on other sites, without being marked as paid |
| Keyword stuffing | A row of city names or keywords at the bottom of every page |
| Hidden text and links | White text on a white background, or tiny links in the footer |
| Doorway pages | Dozens of nearly identical pages, with only the city name different per location |
| Mass-produced content | Hundreds of automatically generated articles without review or original input |
| Cloaking | Search engines are shown a different page than visitors |
Paid links aren't forbidden. An advertisement or paid listing is allowed, as long as the link is marked with rel="sponsored" (or rel="nofollow"). What's not allowed is paying for a regular link that pretends to be a recommendation.
Manual action
If a Google employee determines that your site violates the spam policies, Google can take a manual action. You can see this in Search Console under Manual actions. Fix the problem on all the pages mentioned and request a new review there. According to Google, this usually takes days to weeks, and often longer for links. Not every drop is a manual action: better pages from others or changes at Google can also change your position. See also My page isn't showing up in Google: how to find out why.
Recognising a fair offer
A good SEO specialist can really help, for example with technical problems, better texts, or your business profile. Google recommends asking beforehand:
- Can you show examples of previous work?
- Do you follow Google's guidelines (Google Search Essentials)?
- What results do you expect, within what timeframe, and how do you measure that?
- What experience do you have in my industry, and how long has your company existed?
A fair answer is specific and doesn't promise rankings. If an agency wants to look at your site in Search Console, only give read access.
What actually works is less exciting: a page that properly answers your customer's question. See Writing a page that gets found.